Who will build the Millennial temple?

A temple exists in the Tribulation, because the “Abomination of Desolation” occurs when the Antichrist enters its Holy of Holies. Yet Zech 6.12 says the “Branch” will build it; and “the Branch” is understood to be Christ.

Zechariah 6:12 (ESV)

12And say to him, ‘Thus says the LORD of hosts, “Behold, the man whose name is the Branch: for he shall branch out from his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD.

On Page 181 of MacArthur’s commentary on Zechariah, the paragraph that begins, “Fourth, Christ’s coronation will honor His faithfulness to fulfill God’s purposes for Israel,” details the interpretation that Christ will build the Millennial Temple during the Millennium. In that paragraph is this sentence, “Because of its importance, only the final and true Davidic King will be able to build it (Zech 4:9; cf. 2 Sam 7:13; Ps 132:3-5, 13-17).”

The Keil and Delitzsch commentary on Zech 6:12 interprets “temple” not as a physical temple but as the Church. Note this excerpt, “This Sprout will build the temple of the Lord. That these words do not refer to the building of the earthly temple of stone and wood, as Ros. and Hitzig with the Rabbins suppose, is so obvious, that even Koehler has given up this view here, and understands the words, as Hengstenberg, Tholuck, and others do, as relating to the spiritual temple, of which the tabernacle and the temples of both Solomon and Zerubbabel were only symbols, the temple which is the church of God itself (Hos. 8:1; 1 Pet. 2:5; Heb. 3:6; and Eph. 2:21, 22). Zechariah not only speaks of this temple here, but also in Zech. 4:9, as Haggai had done before him, in Hag. 2:6–9, which puts the correctness of our explanation of these passages beyond the reach of doubt. The repetition of this statement in v. 13a is not useless, but serves, as the emphatic וְהוּא before this and the following sentence shows, to bring the work of the Tsemach into connection with the place He will occupy, in other words, to show the glory of the temple to be built. The two clauses are to be linked together thus: “He who will build the temple, the same will carry eminence.”” [Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament, vol. 10 (Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996), 554–555.]

Dr. Will Brannon: Based on my overall studies of Zechariah and texts I did study, I see three possible interpretations of Zechariah 6:12. I could defend any of them biblically, and do not take a hard stance between these three:

1. The Messiah will rebuild the physical temple sometime in the future. An implication would be this occurs in the millennium, but that is not directly stated in the text. The strength of this interpretation is the “branch” language used about the Messiah throughout the Old Testament.

2. The Messiah will build a spiritual temple (the church). The strength of this view is it has strong New Testament support as the church is often spoken of as a temple, but a weakness is it spiritualizes the temple in the context of Zechariah.

3. The Branch, in context, is Zerubbabel. In this interpretation, the temple is a physical temple, but the fulfillment occurred in the past in the 500s BC (not the millennium in the future, see Ezra 5:1-2). Haggai, which is contemporaneous with Zechariah, identifies Zerubbabel as the chosen servant of God (Hagg 2:23) and Zechariah 4:9 specifically identifies him as the one who rebuilds the temple foundation. I also interpret Zerubbabel as one of the two anointed ones spoken of in Zech 4:11-14.

I prefer #3, because it: 1) Fits the historical context in which Zechariah is writing, and 2) Fits the near context of how both Haggai and Zechariah speak about Zerubbabel and an actual, physical temple. I could be wrong, and again I hold that interpretation with an open hand.

Since I don’t see a clear text that specifically says the Messiah rebuilds the temple, I would assume it will be the Jewish people. That is an assumption though. I don’t have a single text that states that.